Police seek driver in San Ysidro fatal hit-run

SAN YSIDRO  San Diego police are asking for the public’s help in finding the motorist who ran down an 89-year-old pedestrian, killing him, in San Ysidro on Saturday.

Hilario Chairez-Gutierrez of Chula Vista was struck by an SUV on Beyer Boulevard near Cottonwood Road about 4:35 p.m., the county Medical Examiner’s Office said. He died about an hour later at a hospital.

Chairez-Gutierrez was walking southbound toward a trolley station, crossing Beyer mid-block near a county medical clinic that was closed, traffic unit Detective Heidi Hawley said Tuesday. She said another motorist stopped to help the man, and saw the hit-and-run driver make a right turn onto northbound Cottonwood.

“The pedestrian was at fault in this one,” Hawley said. “If he (the driver) had stopped, he would have been talked to, maybe his car impounded for a couple of days, and he’d be on his way.”

The driver, possibly a light-skinned Latino in his 40s, was in a red or maroon, smaller, square SUV similar to a Range Rover or a Nissan, Hawley said. She said the vehicle may be less than five years old and may have some minor damage on the front end, including a broken license plate frame.

She said the lower piece of the frame was found in the road, imprinted with the words “import.net.”

“That didn’t lead us anywhere,” Hawley said. “We found no other parts or paint chips. We have nothing.”

She asked anyone with information on the SUV or driver contact her at (858) 495-7800.